Andy Vance

Last Christmas, one of the local radio stations played a hilarious a capella version of The 12 Days of Christmas by a group called “Straight No Chaser” and I was hooked. I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for a capella music, especially when it’s clever… A 10-member vocal group with its origins at Indiana University in [...]

Editor’s note: The following is a guest editorial written by Ohio’s Director of Agriculture David T. Daniels. A fellow native of Highland County, resides on a family farm that recently earned the distinction of being a “Century Farm,” meaning it has been held in his family’s stewardship for more than 100 years. Prior to being [...]

Editor’s note: This column was written by The Honorable Tom Vilsack, who was named the 30th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the United States Senate on Jan. 20, 2009. Prior to leading USDA, Vilsack was elected Iowa’s 40th governor, serving consecutive terms from 1998-2006. A native [...]

In yet another example of an emotionally-charged solution completely missing the mark on the actual cause of an important problem, hating dog breeders has become the hottest social trend. Let’s start with the legitimate problem: each year, somewhere between 6 and 8 million unwanted, stray or otherwise neglected animals are taken in by local animal [...]

Believe it or not, because Asian agriculture is rice-based rather than corn-centric, students from the Far East excel in mathematics. I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, subtitled “the story of success.” It’s a fascinating book, a fairly easy read, and a volume I would highly recommend (along with other similar “thinking” titles including Freakonomics and Talent [...]